Now comes the best part of home winemaking: drinking and sharing your creations. Drinking a wine you have made can be more satisfying than drinking a high-end commercial wine, both for the joy of its unique flavors and for the sense of accomplishment you feel for having made your own wine. Perhaps the greatest joy, though, at least for me, comes from sharing my creations with appreciative friends. You will certainly impress people when you bring a delicious homemade wine to a wine-tasting event or a dinner party. And it’s always a joy to gift a unique homemade creation to wine-loving friends.
If you are serving a single wine or just a few wines with a dinner course, conventional guidelines — like white wines with fish and fowl and red wines with red meats — work well. For a complete tasting experience, serve a spicy hot pepper wine as an aperitif with appetizers, a light white wine with a salad course, and a robust red wine with the main course.
Aperitif. As an aperitif before dinner, I like to serve a spicy hot pepper wine. A small serving, just an ounce or two, is enough. It will stimulate the appetite and wake up the taste buds. It should be followed by some appetizers for palate cleansing, with a little time for the pepper aftertaste to diminish before dinner. If you are serving guests who don’t like hot peppers, some of the herb wines will also work well as an aperitif.
Fish or chicken main courses. White wines are traditionally served with fish or chicken. For shellfish and delicate white fish like cod, halibut, and tilapia, I would recommend a white fruit or flower wine. Darker, oily fish like trout, salmon, and tuna, which are highly recommended as a source of healthy omega-3 fats, could be paired with a more robust wine.
Other meats. Pork, beef, and bison are usually paired with red wines. Wild game is a little more complicated. Venison, elk, and similar meats go well with red wines. Game birds are more variable. More delicate birds, like pheasant and quail, pair well with lighter white wines. Duck and especially wild goose, which has dark red breast meat similar to beef, are complemented best with a stronger red wine.
After dinner. A sweet dessert wine is appropriate for after dinner. While most wines discussed in this book can be made sweet, I like to serve one that has a dessert spice. A wine with chocolate would also work well as a dessert wine.
There are always exceptions to conventional rules, and it should be obvious from the recipes in part 2 that this book is about thinking outside the box. Don’t be afraid to flout conventional wisdom and break the rules. Drink what you like, with whatever you like to drink it with.
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Aperitif |
Chicken |
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Shellfish, white fish |
Dark and oily fish |
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Pork, beef, venison |
Pheasant, quail |
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Duck, goose |
Dessert |
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I have one of those refrigerator magnets with a favorite quote: “I always cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the recipe!” Many of the wines in this book make excellent cooking wines, but my favorite are the citrus–hot pepper blends. You may even want to make some of the herb wines specifically to use for cooking. A particularly spectacular cooking wine is Double Lemon-Lime-Basil, made with lemons, limes, lemon basil, and lime basil. This wine tastes like a citrus explosion in the mouth and works very well when cooking fish, chicken, or other fowl.
Basting fowl. Wines, particularly herb wines, work well for basting fowl. I prefer to roast turkeys in one of those nylon oven bags, which keeps the turkey moist and tender and makes it easy to add basting liquid. You can also cook chicken and other whole fowl in oven bags.
To baste the bird, put your chosen wine in the bag with the bird: 1 cup of wine for a small bird and 2 to 3 cups for a large turkey. As the bird roasts, the steaming wine will infuse flavor into your bird. Rosemary wine is a classic choice for turkey, although any herb wine would work. I also like to use citrus–hot pepper wines for basting. For crispy, browned skin on your bird, just before the end of the cooking time, open the bag over the breast, and perhaps baste it with butter.
If you use a roasting pan, keep a lid on it to prevent the wine steam from escaping. Baste as often as you like. You can remove the lid near the end of the cooking time to brown the bird, if desired.
Sautéeing. Almost anything you sauté in a pan can be improved by adding a little wine. Why use a store-bought “cooking wine” — a beverage that would taste terrible in a glass — when you can use your own great-tasting natural wines? Many of the wines described in this book, particularly the herb and citrus–hot pepper wines, will add unique flavor to any dish.
Red meats like beef, bison, or venison can benefit from a more robust red wine — perhaps the same wine you plan to drink with dinner. Blackberry, Black Currant, Blueberry, and Mulberry are excellent choices for this. Stir-fry dishes benefit from citrus–hot pepper wines. Rosemary and Thyme wines work especially well with chicken or other fowl, unless you prefer to add a little heat with a hot pepper wine. Fish will benefit from adding Sweet Basil, French Tarragon, or Double Lemon-Lime-Basil wines. A vegetarian dish can be improved by adding almost any herb, hot pepper, or plain citrus wine. Use your imagination and try something different each time you cook.
Marinating. Many of the wines described in this book make great marinades that will add unique flavors to create standout dishes. I suggest using herb or citrus–hot pepper wines, although reds like Blackberry or Chokecherry) would go well with beef or bison. Pork loin goes especially well with fruit wines, and tomato wines also make great marinades. You can always add additional spices, garlic, or fresh herbs to the marinade, if desired.
Mixing cocktails. Some of these wines make a great addition to mixed drinks. Add a shot of strong Peppermint wine to mojitos or mint juleps. Add Lavender or Sweet Basil wine to a martini or a gin and tonic. Any of the citrus–hot pepper wines can create a unique margarita. Throw a splash of Tomato-Cayenne wine into a Bloody Mary. Add fruit wines to fruit daiquiris. A Manhattan garnished with a cherry could use a shot of Cherry wine. A piña colada could benefit from a shot of Pineapple wine. A vodka or tequila sunrise could get a shot of a citrus wine — either plain citrus or a citrus–hot pepper. Fire up your mimosa with a shot of Orange Ghost wine. Any mixed drink that calls for citrus juice can be made with the appropriate citrus wine. Use your imagination and create your own unique mixed cocktails.
Once you see how your wines enhance your cooking, your concept of wine could change dramatically. You might start thinking about making a wine specifically for cooking purposes that you might never drink by itself: garlic, for example, or ginger and turmeric, or rosemary and onion. A culinary herb wine, perhaps in a half bottle (375 milliliters), would make a spectacular gift for a chef or foodie friend. The possibilities are endless.
Wines can develop sediment, especially if they are bottled too soon, continue to ferment after bottling, or are aged for several years before opening. While sediment is unlikely to hurt you, it may not taste good, and it certainly will not look good when poured into a glass. You can resolve this problem by opening any bottle that looks to have gathered sediment on the bottom and filtering the wine before serving it. I simply place a coffee filter inside a funnel and place this on top of an empty wine bottle, then I pour the wine through the filter into the bottle. This takes only a couple of minutes, unlike filtering lees. When I conduct a wine-tasting event, I inspect the chosen wines and filter any with sediment before my guests arrive.
For more than 20 years, I’ve held a New Year’s wine-tasting celebration on the Saturday night of the first weekend in January that doesn’t include New Year’s Eve or Day. That party brings together people from several different social groups and includes musical entertainment in the form of a drum group I perform with. People have described these events as epic, and among the best parties they have ever attended. I put a lot of thought into which wines I serve and when.
If you decide to hold a wine-tasting event for your friends, choose your wines thoughtfully. You might focus on a theme, such as herb wines, flower wines, or spicy wines. If you have made the same wine for a number of years, you could taste bottles from a range of years, showing off the difference aging makes in a particular wine. You will want to have some snacks available for cleansing the palate between wines — fruit, cheese, and bread or crackers are good. I often make a wine-tasting event a potluck, asking friends to bring something, especially if I am offering a large selection of wines. If it is a dinner event, I will prepare a main dish and be sure I have the appropriate palate-cleansing foods available.
Choose the order in which you taste your wines carefully. If you are serving a selection of the same wine from several years, serve them from youngest to oldest. If you are serving a variety of different wines, it takes a little more thought. Lighter, more delicate wines should be served before bolder, more intense ones. Whenever you serve a spicy wine, like a citrus–hot pepper blend, keep in mind that the hot pepper spice may linger, even after you eat a bite of palate-cleansing food. That lingering flavor can overpower a more delicate wine, so it’s best to serve a bolder, fruity wine with some sweetness next. If I am serving a well-aged wine that I consider special, I will serve it last, and I avoid serving a strongly spicy wine just before it.
Below is a sample wine list from of my tasting events. You’ll see here that I did serve a spicy wine before the last one, a 24-year-old Lilac Flower wine, but the lilac wine is not delicate, and the hot pepper wine was a second wine that carried only a mild spice.
It’s nice to make a list of what you are serving at the party and print enough copies that everyone can take one. That way your guests will know exactly what they are tasting and will have a place to write notes if they wish. You could choose to pour each variety for everyone at the same time or, as is the case at my parties, to pour the wines as people arrive, though this can get quite hectic as people shout out which wines they are ready for.
All wines shall be tasted in the order they appear in the list. I suggest pouring small tastes, especially for hot pepper wines (usually served in sake cups or shot glasses) so tasters can make it through the list without ending up under the table. If the host is busy and cannot pour for you, feel free to pour for yourself. No one may pour a second glass of any wine until they have tasted every wine on the list! If enough tasters make it through the list and twist the arm of the host, we will enter the bonus round and dig deep into the cellar for more tastes. Enjoy!
Another fun gathering with friends involves having them help you make wine. I’ve had groups of 6 to 10 people pick and process ingredients like dandelion and chokecherries. I will pull a bottle or two of an older vintage of that same wine out of the cellar to share while we work, and everyone who helps gets a bottle when the wine is ready. In the case of fruits that need to be stomped, like chokecherry, the people who stomp the fruit also get a second bottle.
I have given several dozen people the opportunity to stomp fruit for me over the years. It is always a memorable experience. I’ve had friends stomp fruit for me and then move out of state. When I saw them again a dozen years later, the first thing they said is how much they enjoyed the wine-stomping experience.
The week I proposed to my ex-wife, she stomped blueberries for me. I named that vintage Blueberry Bride and we served it at our wedding reception. We also stored plenty of that wine in the cellar to pull out for special occasions. Making wine like this, at special occasions, can create a memorable vintage you can use to celebrate momentous events many years later. Some winemaking shops that offer on-premise winemaking will host special-occasion winemaking events for those who aren’t ready to make wine at home.
Being a home winemaker has changed my life and opened doors for me in many ways. I am often asked to bring my “wine chest” (an antique metal chest with dividers, designed to carry six bottles of wine) to parties and events. The painted brown exterior is now covered with stickers from celebrations and concerts where it has been backstage. I am a musician with many musician friends. Musicians often salute me from the stage at nightclubs and arenas because they love my wines, sometimes even writing songs about them. The song “Under the Lilacs,” for example, came about after I shared a bottle of Lilac Flower wine with a friend backstage and at the hotel after a show.
When I started making sakes, I shared them with the sushi chefs at my regular sushi restaurant. One of them said that my Ozark Pumpkin Sake was “better than my grandparents make at home in Japan.” I still consider that the finest compliment I’ve ever received for one of my wines.
When you have some of your own wine bottled and in storage, you always have a unique homemade gift on hand. Nothing purchased in a store can equal it, especially if you make unusual wines from unorthodox ingredients. If you make your own labels, you can create a special gift label with the recipient’s name or event. You never know what unique opportunities can come your way from being able to give such a gift on a moment’s notice. I, for instance, met one of my best friends when he moved in a couple of doors down from me and I brought him a bottle of wine as a way of introducing myself. He turned out to be a former Harvard professor who gave me the title of Hillbilly Savant, which is the handle for my social media author platform.
Some of the wines described in this book are so unique that people talk about them and me to their friends, and I am recognized by people I’ve never met. I once walked into a local establishment that prided itself on creating unusual cocktails. When I approached the bar, the bartender said, “You’re the winemaker. You make incredible wines. What would you like? I’m buying.” I encourage you to make unique wines and share them with people — you never know where that may take you.
While I have made many different wines, the possibilities for making more are endless. There are just so many fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers out there that I always seem to find more things to try. I encourage you to experiment too. Try making wine from your favorite edibles, or take advantage of something that drops into your path unexpectedly. It doesn’t cost much to make a 1-gallon batch, and even a 5-gallon batch won’t cost more to make than a single bottle of decent commercial wine costs to purchase. You might just make a wine that no one else has ever tried before. If it works, you will have something unique to amaze your friends, and you can be proud to have it in your cellar.
I seldom make less than a 5-gallon batch of anything because I like to stick a few bottles, or even a case, of every wine I make in the cellar. If you do the same, then a few years down the line, you will have a collection of aging wines that you can consume at any time and relive the process of making those wines. The wines I make, with no sulfites and a higher alcohol content, seem to age very well. Most of them improve, sometimes dramatically so, after a few years or even decades of aging. It is a wonderful experience to pull out a 5-, 10-, or even 20-year-old bottle of wine you’ve made to serve at a special occasion.
So go for it. If you enjoy the process of making your own wines and they turn out well for you, it can change your life. Experiment widely, take advantage of opportunities, and always cellar some away to build a collection of memories and great tastes. You won’t regret it.
At one of my wine-tasting parties, I labeled one of the wines Mystery Wine and explained that the first person to guess the main ingredient would get a bottle to take home. My friend Matt was the winner. This led him to believe that he could guess the ingredients in any of my wines. At a dinner party one night, I gave him my Tomato Italiano wine and asked him to guess what it was. He was stumped. Finally he said, “Is there meat in this?” After a big laugh from the crowd, who had already tasted the wine and knew what it was, I told him what the wine was made from. He responded that the only thing missing was meatballs. At the next wine-tasting event, I served this wine garnished with a grape-size venison meatball and a cherry tomato stabbed with a cocktail sword, calling it Mattie’s Meatball Martini. It was a big hit.